In response to Mr. Bennett’s recent article about Tea Party activists, I hesitate to answer such an article with so many serious issues being treated so simplistically.

I wonder how much he really understands about the subjects he discussed. What person with understanding could actually believe that the tea partiers want to return to the year 1773?

Surely he knows the symbolism involved: One of resistance to a government that has gone too far? Equally insulting was his explanation of the necessity for highways and other government-funded projects.

“Tea Baggers just don’t understand this.” Really? If he really wanted to address the issue, he might speak of the thing these patriots are really upset about, which is the complete lack of fiscal restraint by Congress, funneling huge amounts of taxpayer dollars to financial institutions who have intricate ties to Washington.

Yes, I’m angry about that, especially since these problems were accelerated by the government in the first place.

Daniel Webster said, “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, the power to destroy.”

Washington is saturated with a culture of corruption that spends taxpayer money, not yet received, by the trillions, not on essential services, but on wasteful and fraudulent projects.

Mr. Bennett needs to know that most of the so-called stimulus money was spent on such projects; money from the pockets of those who earned it was handed out like candy for political favors.

Of course the politicians will always say they must spend money or something horrible might happen.

William Pitt understood their manipulations in 1783, when he said, “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”

Our country was founded by men who wanted to protect us from unrestrained federal power.

I stand with those great men in opposing tyranny in the form of an all-powerful federal government which thinks it knows how to best spend my money.

And, regarding Mr. Bennett’s last statement, we are not frivolously slinging around terms socialist and communist.

The president is the son of a proud Marxist. The influences of his mother and stepfather were also Marxist.

His grandfather sought out Frank Davis, a known communist, to mentor young Barry. While in college, Obama admits he sought to align himself with Marxist professors.

He said he wanted to fundamentally change America and he admitted to believing that the federal courts should deal with the redistribution of wealth.

His top advisers are a Who’s Who of Marxist ideology. These facts are easily researched and even mentioned in his own memoirs.

In 18 months, he has managed to increase federal involvement in the monetary system and the auto industry, and has completely taken over health care. He is indeed fundamentally changing our country.

Perhaps Mr. Bennett himself favors a collectivist ideology and is seeking to minimize the alarm that most people feel at the realization of what is going on in this nation.

The fact remains that the collectivist society our current leaders favor weakens the economy, and discourages ingenuity and hard work.

The federalist system put in place by our founders encourages the individual to achieve while maintaining his individual freedom.

As Jefferson said, “Democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work, and give to those who will not.”

I do consider myself a true patriot, and I wholeheartedly agree with C.S. Lewis when he said: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

Bill Haynes

Ironton